Q1 2019 Standard Chartered PLC Interim Management Statement Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Martin Leitgeb - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - Analyst : Could I have 3 questions, please? And the first one is on the very strong revenue trend within Financial Markets. And I was just wondering if you could share a little bit of comment on what happened in the first quarter and to what extent this is a very strong quarter or this is essentially a result of something more fundamental and growing the restructuring of that unit, which I think historically has led to a comparatively weaker revenue trend compared to the rest of the group, but it seems to be that, that is one of the bright spots in today's results. The second question is with regards to the legal entity restructuring, which you announced back at the full year result. And I was just wondering if you could give us an update on where you are with regards to that legal entity restructuring in Hong Kong and at what point we could expect the revenue benefit from an optimized funding structure there to come through. And the final point is just on the earlier comment on the buyback, which you assume to complete by the end of the year, which seems a fairly long period of time at this stage. Could you just share with us what you're focused on in terms of where the buybacks can be executed, London Stock Exchange versus Hong Kong? And is that one of the considerations why it could take longer to complete?

Question: Thomas Andrew John Rayner - Numis Securities Limited, Research Division - Analyst : I think you've done the RWAs and revenue to death a little bit already. Just on the costs. I mean, I know it's only a quarter. Can you give us any sort of color on what's been going on within that cost number maybe on reg costs, accrual headcount, any phasing of investments, so by just giving us a little better feel for what was driving that sort of better Q1 number?

Question: Thomas Andrew John Rayner - Numis Securities Limited, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. And just, I mean, just can we, just one on the RWA. Obviously, it was quite a big annualized growth in Q1, and you've explained the drivers quite well around the accounting change and the sort of market risk. But just in fact, to Fahed's point, I mean, the credit-risk RWAs do seem to be tracking loans quite closely, and I think that's something that we're hoping over the medium term that we're going to see a divergence, in that your optimization will drive a slower pace of RWA growth versus the loan book, which is obviously important for your revenue numbers. So is there anything that you can add that haven't said already that -- on that issue? without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. APRIL 30, 2019 / 6:30AM, STAN.L - Q1 2019 Standard Chartered PLC Interim Management Statement Call

Question: Jennifer Alexandra Cook - Exane BNP Paribas, Research Division - Analyst : Firstly, on the Hong Kong digital banking license, I wanted to get a feel for where we are on the cost trajectory of this program. Will the investment going into this be captured within your current cost outlook? I suppose on that, will you be fully consolidating this venture given your majority stake? Secondly, just coming back to RWAs, and sorry to kind of come back to this given the number of questions you've had on it so far, but they did come in quite a bit higher than the market was expecting in Q1. And importantly, ex IFRS 16 and market seasonality, the underlying seems to consume 30 bps of capital in Q1. If I look at consensus, I've got 2% RWA growth in 2019, including IFRS 16, which then puts your full year number below the Q1 RWA apron. I'm just wondering if you see that as realistic that the full year will end below Q1, particularly if the market will get enough tough books this year.